ATAVID CH10: Sleeping Together

It was another winter.
Jiang Qunyu sat on the windowsill, his legs dangling in the air, his toes swaying and kicking the thin layer of snow accumulated under the window.
Looking at the pristine white snow covering the evergreen pines and cypresses outside, he wondered how he could go out to play in the snow.

Wei Xun had always hated this freezing weather and definitely wouldn’t be willing to accompany him.
But restricted by his identity as an inner demon, he couldn’t go too far from Wei Xun, so he could only gather the snow under the window and in front of the cave dwelling’s entrance to build a snowman.

The snow wasn’t enough, so Jiang Qunyu made do and built two tiny snowmen, placing them by the window.

When Wei Xun finished his cultivation and opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was those two little snowmen.
They were only the size of a palm.
One of the little snowmen was standing, while the other was lying prone on the ground, with the standing one stepping one foot onto the body of the prone one.

With its arms crossed, even though it lacked facial features and no expression could be seen, it didn’t prevent Wei Xun from feeling that the standing snowman looked immensely proud of itself, exactly like Jiang Qunyu.
The one being stepped on underneath, naturally, could only be him.

Wei Xun looked at it for quite a while, discovering that Jiang Qunyu had sculpted himself rather exquisitely.
The one made for him, however, had thick limbs and vague features, obviously thrown together carelessly.

He reached out expressionlessly. With a pinch of his fingertips, he detached the snow leg of “Jiang Qunyu” and casually tossed it aside.
He turned and went back to the bed without the slightest hesitation.

This winter was truly too cold. Even though a heating stove was lit in the cave, the ground still radiated a chill. Neither of them wanted to sleep on the floor or on the ceiling beam.
They even had a huge argument over this.
In the end, they compromised, each taking a step back: both would sleep on the bed.

On the first night sleeping together, they both found each other repulsive.
On that already not-so-large bed, they managed to leave a gap in the middle wide enough to fit two more people, clearly drawing a boundary line between them.

Afraid that Wei Xun waking up early to cultivate would disturb him, Jiang Qunyu forcefully occupied the inner side.
To avoid touching Wei Xun, almost his entire demon self was pressed flat against the freezing wall; even with his back feeling chilly, he refused to move even a fraction of an inch.

Wei Xun didn’t want to see him either.
The Lingxiao Sect had many rules, and Wei Xun had been raised by Wei Lan since childhood; his usual instruction was that he must sleep properly lying flat on his back.
But ever since meeting Jiang Qunyu, he had become highly proficient at sleeping on his side.
With his back facing Jiang Qunyu, what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.

But with a living creature suddenly next to him, possessing a presence so strong it was glaring, Jiang Qunyu tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
His pitch-black pupils shifted in the night, and he began to cook up bad ideas again.

After waiting for about half an incense stick of time, he heard Wei Xun’s slow and even breathing from behind him.
He quietly rolled over, a wicked smile spreading across his lips, and raised his foot, wanting to kick Wei Xun off the bed.

Unexpectedly, Wei Xun had also been pretending. His fingers were fast, accurate, and ruthless; the moment his foot reached over, he grabbed his ankle.
Caught off guard, Jiang Qunyu was restrained by him.

Jiang Qunyu was furious, “Fuck your uncle, let go of your daddy’s leg!”

“Heh.”
Wei Xun slightly lifted his eyelids, his long and thick eyelashes casting a small shadow under his eyes. His face was gloomy as the pads of his fingers squeezed his ankle with slight force. “Jiang Qunyu, how long do you plan to keep courting death?”

The hand holding Jiang Qunyu had distinct knuckles. Probably due to holding a sword year-round, the finger pads were covered with a thin layer of calluses. As they brushed against Jiang Qunyu’s ankle, it brought a slightly cool roughness.
It was a bit ticklish, and brought about an indescribable feeling.

But soon, that bit of weirdness in Jiang Qunyu’s heart was overshadowed by anger.
He propped himself up, gathering all his strength in his other leg, aiming to kick Wei Xun in the lower abdomen.
“Who told you to steal my bed?!”

“Your bed?” Wei Xun was angered into a laugh by these words and abruptly let go of his ankle.
He sneered, coldness surging in his eyes, “Jiang Qunyu, are you forgetting that you are nothing but my inner demon? Even your existence is because of me, yet you dare to talk about ‘your’ things?”

These words were like a thorn, piercing Jiang Qunyu’s heart until it caught fire.
The atmosphere between the two instantly became tense, the air thick with the smell of gunpowder.

The next instant, it was unknown who made the first move. Palm winds swept past their ears, and the two scuffled together.
The narrow bed instantly fell into chaos; the brocade quilt fluttered, pillows and mats rolled off, and even the bed frame was bumped until it creaked loudly, exceptionally clear in the silent winter night.

After fighting, the two looked at the crisscrossing light red scratch marks on each other’s faces and simultaneously turned their heads away in unison.
In the end, they silently reached a tacit understanding: each occupying one side of the bed, sleeping on their own, neither provoking the other.

It was just that Jiang Qunyu was not an honest sleeper.
Originally pressed against the wall, once he fell into a deep sleep, he unconsciously burrowed towards the warmth.
Wei Xun was sleeping peacefully when he suddenly felt a chill at his waist.

Opening his eyes, he saw Jiang Qunyu’s leg draped over his side, his entire body pressed very close.
At first, Wei Xun still maintained his patience, reaching out to shake him awake, and said coldly, “Stay far away.”

Jiang Qunyu groggily opened his eyes, a layer of daze covering them. He blanked for a moment before nodding, saying hoarsely, “Oh, sorry.”
He obediently shifted his body back against the wall, rolled over, and fell dead asleep again.

Wei Xun closed his eyes again. Just as he was about to fall asleep, the top of his foot felt cold again.
He glanced down; Jiang Qunyu had snuggled over again.
His bare feet stepped on the top of his foot, and he even reached out for a yard after taking an inch, trying to shove his feet between his calves, making it clear he wanted to borrow his body heat for warmth.

“Jiang Qunyu!” Wei Xun truly couldn’t bear it anymore. He pinched his ankle and woke him up, anger condensing in his eyes.
He really couldn’t understand why an inner demon consisting only of a soul body would still be afraid of the cold.

Half asleep and half awake, Jiang Qunyu was woken up by Wei Xun again. This time, his temper instantly flared up, furious beyond belief. “What is it now, ancestor? It’s not like I’m collecting your corpse, do you have to be in such a rush?”
Was there anything that couldn’t be said tomorrow?!

Wei Xun didn’t utter a word, only glaring at him coldly, the chill in his eyes almost freezing someone solid.

Jiang Qunyu looked at the distance between them and said self-righteously, “It’s not like I did it on purpose! I was asleep, how would I know I’d roll over?”
“If you come over again, you might as well roll right down.”

Jiang Qunyu curled his lips and muttered softly, “Stingy ghost.”
Wei Xun: “I heard that.”
“It was meant for you to hear anyway.”
Wei Xun: “…”

He hadn’t expected this inner demon to sleep honestly in the first place.
By the time Jiang Qunyu draped his leg over for the third time, even pressing half of his entire body close, Wei Xun surprisingly slowly endured it.
He only frowned and shifted slightly to the side, letting him be.

Therefore, the next day when Jiang Qunyu woke up and walked to the windowsill, seeing that the little snowman had lost its leg, he thought Wei Xun did it to intimidate him.
He immediately grabbed the two ugly snowmen and turned around, extremely furious: “Wei Xun! You broke my snowman!”

Hearing the noise, the youth sitting cross-legged on the bed cultivating slowly opened his eyes.
Jiang Qunyu was dressed in a green shirt, wearing a fox-fur cloak, his long black hair tied up high with a blue silk ribbon.
In his hands, he held the two very ugly snowmen, glaring at him furiously like a bristling cat.

Wei Xun glanced at the snowmen in his hands, didn’t even fully lift his eyelids, and closed his eyes again.
Jiang Qunyu was so angry he almost fainted, gripping the snowmen, gritting his teeth, and cursing in a low voice: “Despicable man, despicable man, despicable man…”

After cursing, he still didn’t feel his anger was vented. Suddenly thinking of something, he hooked his lips into a wicked smile.
He raised his hand and threw the snowman at Wei Xun.
That’ll teach him for not letting him go out to play.
That’ll teach him for breaking his little snowman!

The little snowman was actually already a bit loose, so before it could hit Wei Xun’s body, it shattered in mid-air.
Fine snow powder drifted all over him; even his long, slender eyelashes were dusted with a few specks, adding a bit of coldness to his pale face.

“Hahaha—”
Jiang Qunyu laughed, rocking back and forth. With his hands on his hips, he huffed, “Who told you to touch my little snowman!”
In the end, he was still holding a grudge against Wei Xun for deliberately breaking the snowman to threaten him.

Seeing Wei Xun open his eyes, blatant displeasure condensing in their depths, Jiang Qunyu didn’t back down either. He glared back, “Don’t think I don’t know, you’re just annoyed that I don’t sleep honestly at night, so you deliberately removed the snowman’s leg to threaten me, wanting to dismember me too, right?”

Wei Xun glared at him darkly, smiling instead of getting angry. “Jiang Qunyu, be reasonable. You stepped on me first.”
He was talking about those two snowmen.

Jiang Qunyu refused to admit it, “Who said that snowman was you?”
Wei Xun brushed the snow off his body and pulled at his lips, “Then why don’t you tell me, who is that snowman?”
“It’s a psycho!” After saying that, Jiang Qunyu walked out again.

Wei Xun didn’t want to bicker with him. He watched his retreating back for a while, then closed his eyes again.
Outside, a new layer of snow had fallen last night.

Jiang Qunyu squatted in the snow in front of the cave entrance. His pale knuckles dug into the fluffy snow pile, and he began to build snowmen again.
Probably because his anger toward Wei Xun hadn’t dissipated yet, this time he made the snowman modeled after Wei Xun even uglier, with a crooked mouth, squinted eyes, and even missing an ear.

“Wei Xun is the absolute most annoying person.” As he sculpted, he muttered softly, as if venting his anger.
Once finished, he placed the two snowmen back on the windowsill and shouted into the cave: “Wei Xun! If you dare break my little snowman again this time, I will definitely fight you, to the death!”
Unfortunately, his threat made no difference to Wei Xun.

That night, carrying his sword, Wei Xun passed by the windowsill, caught a glimpse of that ridiculously ugly snowman, flicked his finger, and shattered it again.
When Jiang Qunyu woke up the next day, he fought with Wei Xun.

The snowmen he made grew uglier and multiplied in number.
He not only placed them on the windowsill but also piled them by Wei Xun’s cultivation futon, next to the bed, and even in the corners of the ceiling beams.
Each and every one was crooked and misshapen, very ugly.

Wei Xun didn’t find it annoying either; seeing one, he smashed one, never hesitating.
One day, Jiang Qunyu walked out.
He looked up at the sky, then suddenly turned his head.

With a fierce tone but a hint of smugness, he said, “Today is probably the last snow of this winter, so I’ll show great mercy and make you look a bit nicer.”
Then, he earnestly built two small snowmen anew and placed them by the window.
By the time Wei Xun finished his cultivation and walked over as usual, the night was already deep.

Inside the bed curtains, Jiang Qunyu had long fallen asleep.
Outside the bed curtains, the red candles were still burning. A candle snuff popped lightly with a “crackle,” exceptionally clear in the quiet night.
The two small snowmen on the windowsill were exquisitely crafted, palm-sized, with a nose and eyes, looking incredibly lifelike.

One snowman held a sword in hand, looking entirely gloomy; the other tilted its head up to look at the sky, its arms crossed, looking very defiant.
Today, an unexpectedly bright moon hung outside. The cold moonlight poured through the window lattice, falling onto the snow-covered ground and spreading a faint chill.
Landing on those two small snowmen, it plated them in a soft layer of silver radiance.

Scattered stars dotted the ink-black canopy of the sky. Inside the cave dwelling, there was only the sound of their shallow breathing.
Wei Xun lowered his eyes, gazing at those two small snowmen. He stood there for a good while, raised his fingertips, and hovered them over the snowmen, but ultimately didn’t let them fall.
Finally, he softly turned around and walked slowly back to the bed, not touching those two small snowmen again.
Tacitly acknowledging the existence of those two snowmen.

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